BRDC F4 News: BRDC F4 confirms Tatuus as new chassis supplier

September 4, 2014

MSV will introduce a new FIA F4 specification carbon composite chassis for its BRDC F4 championship, commencing with the 2015 Autumn Championship, confirming an exclusive deal with Italian manufacturer Tatuus to use its FIA F4 specification chassis in the UK.

MSV has agreed to purchase 26 new Tatuus F4 cars with an option for a further four, which it expects to take up in the next month given the extremely positive response from existing BRDC F4 teams. MSV will permit a maximum of 30 cars for its 2016 F4 Championship, which will be sold to teams approved by MSV to enter the championship.
The Tatuus F4 cars will be delivered to MSV in August 2015 and supplied to the teams over a two week window in September 2015. The new cars will first be raced in the 2015 Autumn Championship and then in the main F4 Championship for at least four years from 2016.

The Tatuus car, selected after careful consideration of all the options for new car supply, conforms to full FIA F4 specification (Article 274) safety regulations. Following consultation with existing teams, MSV expects to retain the excellent normally aspirated two-litre Ford Duratec engine that has proved so consistent and reliable in the current MSV F4-013. The new car will also have the SADEV six-speed paddleshift gearbox that has been very successfully used to date.

With immediate effect, MSV invites applications from all interested parties to purchase its new F4 cars and enter the 2016 BRDC F4 Championship. Existing BRDC F4 teams will have first option on the cars providing they confirm by Friday 12th September and pay a deposit by 1st October 2014. The cost of upgrading to the new car for existing BRDC F4 teams will be around £20,000 per car including MSV’s buy-back of F4-013 cars for £15,000.

MSV Chief Executive Jonathan Palmer commented: “I am delighted that MSV is partnering with Tatuus to supply our next-generation F4 car. The experience and reputation of Tatuus, best known for their highly successful Formula Renault cars, is outstanding, and they are already the world leaders in production of the FIA F4 car, supplying the launch Italian F4 championship. We visited the Tatuus facility near Monza and were very impressed with their whole approach and the quality of the engineering of their F4 chassis. We established an excellent rapport with Tatuus principal Gianfranco De Bellis and I’m looking forward to exploring other projects together, combining MSV’s promotional expertise with Tatuus’s high quality, high value engineering.

“The FIA have done an impressive job on the specifications for FIA F4 cars and it is logical that we take advantage of this for our new car. I have no doubt the combination of the new Tatuus F4 chassis with MSV’s well established and highly successful F4 championship will mean the UK will have an outstandingly healthy F4 championship for the long term.

“It was always planned that we would have a new car to replace our existing chassis after three years. I am most appreciative of the excellent launch car that Ralph Firman designed and built, which has proved the perfect way to start F4 in the UK with big grids providing superbly close, reliable, affordable and safe racing. The existing MSV F4-013 chassis will continue to be used in the 2015 main championship, enabling our BRDC F4 teams to provide the lowest costs to competitors next season and unlimited winter testing.”

Tatuus’s Principal Gianfranco De Bellis commented: “For us at Tatuus, it is just fantastic to have this opportunity to supply the new car for the BRDC Formula 4 Championship in England, under the promotion of Jonathan Palmer and his group. We are really confident and motivated. For Tatuus, this is a new and important partnership and we will do our best to reciprocate this trust.

“The intuition of the FIA to create a new regulation to allow young drivers to begin taking their first steps in motorsport, with a car of high safety and low purchasing and running cost, has been rewarded. Different Federations and promoters are choosing F4 and this is the best signal that the work done by all is appreciated.”